A few years ago, I found myself in a familiar but never welcome place: stuck.
From the outside, things looked fine.
I’d completed a world-class coaching certification in California, I had built a successful small property portfolio including a garage conversion into a popular short term let and had done all the deep dives in personal development and growth to get me finally moved on from the stigmas of burn out and divorce.
I was ready to relaunch my consulting business—and this time to include my coaching work. That’s when I realised that over the last few years I had lost the threads of my own story.
Inside, I felt out of sync with my own identity and my confidence was unravelling. Like the story I was telling no longer matched the person I’d become or the work I truly wanted to do.
The words felt lifeless. Like I was describing someone else. I felt completely stuck.
So I stopped. I stopped trying to sound clear and I went looking for what was true.
I went back to the beginning and traced back to my own story:
A childhood in a family of Scottish hoteliers, Art school. Interior design in London and Australia. I noted all the twists and turns. The surprise detour into Japanese studies leading inexplicably into a career in brand strategy and advertising in London.
Then starting my own consulting business and successfully delivering a creative/ business mix for small business in the tourism sector. I clocked all the bits that I loved and the bits that had taken me off course.
And most recently—training as a professional coach, deepening my ability to listen, reflect, and guide transformation that actually sticks.
It wasn’t linear. But it had a shape. A pattern. And a clear centre.
And that’s when I realised that it had all been leading to here. Exactly where I was in this moment.
So when I started writing again, I dropped the polish and told the truth. I shared my actual story—and people responded.They saw themselves in it. They reached out. They wanted help naming what had changed in them, too. And to develop a clear roadmap to move forward with.
That’s when StoryStrands was born.
It brings together everything I’ve done—both professionally and personally: brand strategy, storytelling, coaching, business consulting, clarity work—for people who are evolving and want the way they show up in the world to evolve with them.
